The first phase of major new road on the north side of Drogheda was officially opened today, one year after the sod was turned on the project.
The Port Access Northern Cross Route will eventually link the M1 with Drogheda Port and open up land for up to 5,000 new houses to be built.
The first phase has cost around €17 million to build and includes a new 2km road, and a further 2km of upgraded road, linking the Rosehall Roundabout to the new Ballymakenny Road Roundabout, and will facilitate the construction of around 1,300 homes.
It is hoped the new route will allow Drogheda, which is already Ireland's biggest town, to develop sustainably and deliver housing.
The Port Access Northern Cross Route is being built in conjunction with Louth County Council, two housing developers (Castlethorn and Ballymakenny Developments Ltd) and HISCO, the Housing Infrastructure Services Company.
HISCO is a commercial entity that provides supporting infrastructure for residential developments, funded in agreement with developers.
Niall Morrissey, CEO of HISCO said that the developers then pay the money back on a unit by unit basis once the new homes are sold.
"It's a cash flow break for developers," he said.
One of those developers is Castlethorn, which already has houses built beside the road.
Ronan Columb, Group Managing Director, said that Castlethorn is currently on site with about 300 homes and that they "wouldn't be able to develop it without the road".
"We have new people living in new homes now, and we expect by the end of this year, we will have 300 families in their homes here. We have a further 300 units we will be commencing towards the latter half of this year, so we really have a ramped up programme to deliver housing in the north Drogheda area, all facilitated by this road," he said.
Louth County Council CEO Joan Martin said that today was an "enormous start" for the project and she hoped it would be the catalyst for the rest of the road to be built, something she said the Council has been wanting to do for around 20 years
The completed project will be about 5.6 kilometers long and could take up to three more phases to be fully delivered.
The first section links the M1 towards a railway line.
"Then there's a section where we have to get through the railway line, under it, so I think that section will have to be built separately because we'll have to do that obviously in conjunction with Irish Rail because that's a big project. And then you've another section the far side of the railway line, and I'm already talking to another bunch of developers who are interested in building that section. And then we'll be left with the last piece down to the port."
Ms Martin said the council has already bought all the land for the entire road project, that planning permission is in place, and that she has "every confidence it will get built in the coming years".
The road will be opened to traffic early next week.
